Hazells Farm Barn and attached oast

A Grade II Listed Building in Istead Rise, Kent

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Summary

Multi-functional timber-framed farm building probably erected in the 1850s, with brick oast houses added by 1882.

Description

MATERIALS: the barn is constructed of pine, either Baltic or possibly North American, on a stock brick plinth with a slate roof. The attached oast houses are constructed of stock brick in Flemish bond with slate roofs.

PLAN: the plan is most unusual, consisting of two floors, the ground floor originally divided into three open sided compartments to be used for cattle shelter or the storage of carts and implements with threshing floors between and crops stored on the upper floor. It is of 13 bays, the central three bays wider than the end three bays on each side and linked by two wider threshing bays. In the mid C20 slatted onion floors were introduced on the upper floor,

EXTERIOR: the west side has a roof overhanging on wooden brackets. The central three bays of the lower floor are open fronted, supported on wooden posts embedded in padstones. The northern part, which was originally open fronted, has been infilled in the later C19 in stock brick. The upper floor has three blocked windows and there are two cart entrances with divided doors on pintle hinges rising to nearly the full height of the building. The east side is similar but the lower floor, formerly open, has been enclosed with weatherboarding. The south gable end has projecting thin wooden eaves, an owl hole, a loading door to the upper floor and the lower floor has been enclosed in concrete blocks dated 1957. The north gable end has similar projecting eaves, an owl hole, a shuttered window opening, a loading door to the upper floor and a pedestrian entrance and casement window on the lower floor. The two oast houses are linked to the barn at the north western end and are circular, constructed of stock brick in Flemish bond with conical slate roofs with wooden cowl and fantails.

INTERIOR: the ground floor of the barn retains timber piers, some supported on padstones. An iron belt drive survives for food preparation machines. There are two threshing floors with side walls. The wall frame is of thin studs with diagonal braces. The roof structure is of kingpost construction with a series of purlins and dragon ties at the corners. The northern part of the upper floor was later used for hop stowage and had a hop press. Window openings were blocked at this time. The oast houses retain their slatted drying floors.

History

Hazells Barn lies to the north-west of Hazells, the original farmhouse, an early C19 house listed at Grade II, which was in the same ownership as the farmyard until later in the C20. Before Hazells barn was built in the mid-C19 there was already a pre-existing brick late C18 or early C19 stable block to the south of the farmhouse. The owner of Hazells in the C19 operated a shipping company from Gravesend. Hazells Barn is shown on the First Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map of 1882 aligned north to south, and already is shown with two oasts attached at the north-west corner, added after the construction of the barn. By the 1896 edition further farm buildings have been added on the north and west sides of the farmyard but the profile of Hazells Barn remains unchanged.

Reasons for Listing

Hazells Farm Barn is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Rarity: a mid C19 multi-purpose farm building resembling North American or Canadian examples. This farm building is unique in Kent and probably over a much wider area. The survival of a wooden threshing floor is also a rare survival and the oasthouses are now rare survivals of unconverted oasts retaining their wooden slatted drying floors and cowls and fantails to the roofs;
* Architectural: an unusually large and impressive symmetrical farm building of 13 bays with two cart entrances constructed of good quality materials, a softwood frame, slate roof and York stone padstones;
* Intactness and development: the frame is intact, the added oasthouses reflect later farming practices and the 1950s inserted onion floors on the upper floor a further change in farming practices;
* Group value: forms part of a group with the original farmhouse, Hazells, and the adjoining calf house/stable.

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